GAYOT's Blog

• 

 

by Jennifer Olvera
Easter is right around the corner, and we’re mighty excited about the ridiculously tasty-sounding—not to mention, atypical—options out there. Since we like a bit of savory with our sweet, we’ve set eyes on the three-course spread at one sixtyblue. You can choose between items like grilled shrimp with curried cucumber-yogurt sauce and fried chickpeas and slow-cooked pork belly with buttermilk biscuits and spicy sausage gravy. From there, opt for a flat iron steak with braised spring radishes, fiddlehead ferns and spring onion gratin or, perhaps, ricotta-English pea ravioli with Parmesan gratin, followed by sorbet with rosemary shortbread. The cost is $39 per person, and a waffle bar ($12) is available for kids under 12. On the other hand, Eve’s $32, three-course brunch features the likes of Toulouse sausage with caramelized onions and sauerkraut; slow-cooked Swan Creek Farm ham with fennel-poached eggs and caramelized fennel; and eggs Sardou with soft-shell crab, creamed spinach, poached eggs, crispy artichokes and béarnaise. Are you thinking Greek? Then head to Taxim, where the $55, five-course lineup includes items like kokoretsi, charcoal-grilled caul-stuffed offal; magiritsa, hearty lamb offal soup; tsouknidopita, nettle pie with house-made phyllo, sheep’s milk butter and feta; and tsoureki, braided sweet bread baked with a red-dyed egg. For the main course, it’s on to whole charcoal-roasted, milk-fed spring lamb. Seatings are at 10:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m., 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Want some more ideas on where to eat? Check out our comprehensive list of the best Easter Brunch restaurants in Chicago.

• 

 

Spring into spring with help from our March edition of The Food Paper newsletter!

Get started with a lavish meal at one of our Top 10 Brunch Hotels in the U.S. or cook up something new from chef Skye Gyngell’s cookbook Favorite Ingredients.

Don’t forget to eat your greens! Check out our reviews about artichokes and asparagus, as well as our tasty recipe for roasted asparagus with chili vinaigrette.

In addition, we have everything you need for March 17, including our St. Patrick’s Day Guide with a list of our Top 10 Irish Beers, a Travel Guide to Ireland and much more!

• 

Our Tastes Newsletter for March has been published! Spring Fever is here!

 

 

Celebrate everything that is green! Read our guide to St. Patrick’s Day, featuring the Top 10 Irish Pubs in the U.S., the best pubs and bars near you and the Top Irish Beers. Make sure to check out the best places for Easter Brunch, our list of the Top 10 Castle Hotels Worldwide, The Country Cooking of Ireland cookbook review,  the Top 10 Small SUVs and much more!

• 

Our February Edition of the Foodpaper Newsletter is here!

Spice up your love life! Check out our list of Top 10 Places to Kiss in the U.S., our favorite sexy hotels, and our Top 10 Valentine’s Day Wines. Mix it up in the kitchen with a decadent recipe for Dark Chocolate Dipped Pineapple with Pistachio or put our list of Top 10 Aphrodisiacs to the test. We also have a Valentine’s Day Guide, a sexy Car of the Month, and much more!

• 

 

 

 

 

• 

by Jennifer Olvera

 

Just about everyone fell in love with Labriola Bakery & Café, a handsome offshoot of the esteemed Alsip, Ill., wholesale bakery, when it opened in an upscale, if generic, Oak Brook strip mall outside of Chicago in late 2008.

 

Owner Rich Labriola, a pizza-maker’s son, formed one of the area’s most respected—and profitable—artisan bread-baking companies back in 1993, supplying his wares to hotels and restaurants, such as Rosebud, Phil Stefani ventures and Spago, before taking the next step.

 

Sure, lines snake around the store or out the door during peak times, but few seem to mind—especially now. Labriola just expanded, launching concept-within Labriola Pasticerria, where sweets—almost too pretty to eat—provide eye candy for the lunch-breaking suits, socialites and regular, old carb lovers who gobble fare at wooden tables illuminated by a roaring fire or flickering flat-screens.

  Continue reading “Labriola Pasticerria Lures Sweet Tooths” »

• 

• 

By Sophie Gayot

What were Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and I doing around a tray of hot dogs yesterday? As my jacket indicates, we were at Pink’s Hot Dogs in Hollywood, where the Mayor had to elect the “LAX International Dog,” the signature hot dog at the soon-to-open Pink’s location at the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX.

 

Continue reading “A Pink Moment” »

• 

By Jeff Hoyt

 

Our own Alain Gayot appeared as a judge on the season finale of Hell’s Kitchen on FOX-TV on Tuesday October 13, and showed that his taste matched that of chef and host Gordon Ramsay. In the first showdown between the final two competitors, filmed outside of the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites in downtown Los Angeles, Alain preferred Dave Levey’s rack of venison with sour cream and chive parsnip purée over Kevin Cottle’s petite clambake with poached lobster and clam pudding. Despite fracturing his wrist during the production, Dave went on to win this sixth season of competition, and the position of head chef at Araxi Restaurant in Whistler, British Columbia.

• 

By Sophie Gayot

What better way to experience a cookbook than to cook with the author himself? Since it is summer and we all enjoy the outdoors, celebrity chef Curtis Stone put on his apron last week to show us some of his barbecue recipes.

 

From his latest release, Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone, we enjoyed the baby-back ribs. I am sure it was due to the barbecue sauce, both sweet and sour (page 192); it was so good I used the leftover the next day on chicken, and vegetables. Stone suggested seasoning lobster with a white sauce, lemon and parsley before putting it on the grill (page 183).

 

For a light, sweet finish, he had prepared lemon curd tarts topped with fresh raspberries (page 250). He likes to tell the story that lemon curd is one of the first things his mum taught him to make.

Continue reading “Recipes for a Stylish Barbecue” »

« Newer Posts — Older Posts »